grew her business. Today, her products are sold in Clicks and Pick n Pay stores across the country. Letsoalo speaks toabout what inspired her to launch the business, how she managed to score deals with large retailers, and why she believes beauty tech is the next frontier for her business.
"I started Masodi Organics while I was working in consulting, and it was something that I was just doing through my social media. And then it actually shocked me how well received it was," Letsoalo tells News24 at the start of our interview. Since her launch, Letsoalo was featured on payment platform Yoco's advertising, became a TEDx speaker and was praised by then small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in the National Assembly in 2021.
"Everything I do, I always want to help restore the lost dignity of black and brown people across the world, to help restore the lost dignity of marginalised groups." Letsoalo, who holds an industrial engineering degree from the University of Pretoria, used money she had saved up and loans from family and friends to start her business .
"I had my little sister Sarah, who was almost playing [the role of] an assistant. At the time, because I was busy making the products [over] the weekend and I would send them to my sister, and then during the week, when we got orders, I'll just tell her what the order is [and] she'll pack it up, and then we send it off to the customers."
"What you will find interesting, though, is that it took about a year and a half after securing those contracts to secure funding. I tried to talk to government agencies, I tried to talk to private funders, I tried to talk to so many individuals to try and secure funding."